Hi there,

Have you noticed that pirogies are having a moment? There are two pierogie restaurants in Philadelphia and numerous perogie food trucks. I was even in one of those hipster craft beer bars a little while ago and they had perogie as an appetizer.

I am suspicious that the Covid lockdown had something to do with it. I think the lockdown scared us all so bad that we need the security of down home foods. The lockdown also allowed us enough time to make them.

My friend Darlene shared this recipe and story about her Perogie making adventure.

Darlene’s Mom’s Perogy

darlenefoster.wordpress.com

“The secret ingredient is always love.” Michael Sorrentino

Here is my story and recipe as well as a picture of the perogies I made. Let me know if it is OK.

I haven’t been back to Canada for almost two years and miss my family a lot. During that time we lost mom. So I have been a bit homesick. One of the things that helps is eating food from home. So I dug out mom’s perogy recipe and thought I would try making them. I had found some sauerkraut in the grocery store so I knew I could have a German Canadian meal.

My first attempt was a disaster. I knew the recipe would make a lot and I only had 1 cup of cottage cheese so I cut the recipe down to 1/3. But how do you manage 1/3 of an egg? I thought, what difference does it make, and used 1 egg for the filling. I forgot that mom made her own cottage cheese and it was usually quite dry. The store-bought stuff was very moist. The filling was like soup and wouldn´t stay in the dough package. So it was a huge fail! I put the rest of the dough in the fridge as well as the filling.

The following night the filling had thickened. So I rolled out the rest of the dough and made nice plump perogies. The dough was a bit thick but they turned out not bad, just not as good as mom´s. A friend suggested next time I drain the cottage cheese in some cheesecloth or a sieve. Another friend said not to handle the dough too much. I will be trying these again as I just love them. They are my comfort food.

Here is the recipe

Mom’s Perogies by Darlene Foster

Dough:
2 cups warm water
½ cup cooking oil
2 tsp salt
6 tblsp sour cream
6 cups flour

In a large bowl combine water, oil & salt
Beat with wire whisk
Gradually beat in flour & sour cream
Work until a nice soft dough
Let rest while making the filling

Filling:
3 cups cottage cheese
1 egg
chopped green onion

Mix thoroughly

Roll out dough until quite thin
Cut into 2” squares
Put 1 tbsp of filling in each centre
Fold over and pinch tightly shut

Place in boiling water. Boil for 3 minutes or until they float on top.

Serve with buttered breadcrumbs, sour cream or fried onions.

Can be frozen

Note: Mom would serve them after boiling them the first night then fry the leftovers in butter the following night. I loved the pan-fried perogies best so I always fry them after boiling and draining on a paper towel. I also enjoy them served with sauerkraut.

They can be filled with other things like mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese or sauerkraut but we preferred them with cottage cheese growing up.

Hugs,
Darlene

Do you have a favorite comfort food? Why not share the recipe in the comments section.

Talk soon, ❤️💕 Bernadette